Csx Works To Keep Shipments Rolling

Rerouting After The Amtrak Derailment Added About Four Hours To Each Trip.

April 20, 2002|By Richard Burnett, Sentinel Staff Writer

In the aftermath of Thursday's Amtrak derailment, more than 120 miles of CSX Corp.'s main line through Orlando remained closed Friday as the railway giant worked to keep freight shipments to its Central Florida customers on track.

Trains will still run, CSX officials said, but not on time.

The company is routing southbound freight and passenger trains onto its so-called S-line, which runs from Jacksonville through Ocala to Auburndale. From there, trains can head northeast to Orlando.

Northbound trains from South Florida also will use the S-line.

Although the detour will keep the trains running, it will add more traffic congestion to the S-line and add an average of four hours to each trip, CSX spokesman Dan Murphy said.

"More than a dozen trains have been rerouted so far, and we expect to have as many as nine trains rerouted each day until the track is cleared,'' he said. "Right now, we don't have an ETA on when that will be finished.''

That could mean a number of delivery delays for businesses such as Conrad Yelvington Distributors Inc., which sells gravel, granite and other aggregate stone. The Daytona Beach company brings in trainloads of stone each week from quarries in South Florida and Georgia. With the CSX line through Orlando -- the so-called A-line -- closed, Yelvington can only receive shipments at one of its three distribution terminals.

"We will see some impact,'' said Bob Gentry, Yelvington's vice president of transportation. "We know traffic will back up and it could get a little dicey for a few days. But we should have enough product in inventory to tide us over.''

In a pinch, Yelvington could turn to its other freight service supplier -- Florida East Coast Railway -- to supply terminals at Daytona Beach and Rivera Beach, Gentry said.

Many industries in Central Florida could face the same pressures if the cleanup from the accident is prolonged.

CSX ships a variety of raw materials and other freight on the A-line, from paper, chemicals, electronics, lumber, building supplies, agricultural feed and washing machines to U.S. mail.

Rail delays are expected to be less of a problem for utilities such as Florida Power and the Orlando Utilities Commission, officials said. Both receive hundreds of tons of coal weekly at their coal-fired power plants, including OUC's Stanton Unit in east Orange County.

"We always have more than 30 days' supply of coal in reserve,'' OUC spokesman Paul Dillon said. "We always build up a good cushion of supplies so that just-in-time delivery would not be an issue for us.''

Likewise, companies that ship products out of Florida by rail have contingency plans.

"We don't expect any disruption to our shipments in this case, but if there were, we'd be ready,'' said Meaghan Stout, spokeswoman for juice-maker Tropicana North America in Bradenton. "We have large distribution centers in New York and Cincinnati and we have plenty of product there. Plus, we have several alternatives to get juice to its destination.''

Grocery chains -- such as Publix and Winn-Dixie -- have all but abandoned rail transportation for freight shipments, officials said.

"This would have been a much more serious problem 20 years ago,'' said Mike Mullins, a professor of engineering at the University of Central Florida. "But we've had such a heavy transition from rail to trucking, potential delays like this don't have nearly the impact it would have had.''